Lente do Amor (Lens of Love) is a song by Gilberto Gil. It is not be among his most famous compositions, so chances are you nver heard of its clever lyrics, which go more or less like this in English:

(…) Through the lens of love
I see the color of pleasure, I see the face of pain
through the lens of love
I see the boat sail through the waters of evil and good
Show the doctor, face it,
Heal your wound
Transcend through the lens of love
Chant the mantric
Pay the karmic in the deal
Transcend, through the lens of love

Pretty ingenious, right? I love the idea of celebrating what goes right in life, while “paying the karmic”. Great works acquire new meanings every time we look at them, and maybe that’s why Lente do Amor comes to my mind right at this moment when, for various reasons, I had to abandon a project.

If you also work with projects, you know how difficult it is to get any idea off paper and turn it into a decent project. After that, there is a whole phase (which always seems endless) of gathering documents and signatures, followed by anxiety until the final result .

When the result is positive, it seems that the world is conspiring in our favor, that everything will work out, etc. Unfortunately, this is often not the case. Life is full of such karmic moments and it is always difficult to overcome them. Well, this is where the unsurpassable Gilberto Gil method comes in: transcend, through the lens of love.

Through the lens of love, what has been conquered becomes clearer and even the painful path of returning to zero point, which we so often have to do, seems less arduous. Through the lens of love, it is also easier to exercise forgiveness, especially self-forgiveness, so necessary to heal those wounds that no one sees.

Giving up should never be the first choice and nobody wants to be called a quitter, whether in a personal relationship or a professional task, but what to do if there is no other way out? And how to know if there really is no other way?

My tip is to stop and think about all (or at least a good number) of possible outcomes of the two actions. By better understanding the impact of giving up or continuing, it will be much easier to make a decision. It is even worth drawing or using some kind of mind map, if that kind of tool works for you.

Once your considered decision is made, my last suggestion would be: play Gil and enjoy!

Be seeing you!

G.F.